Discussion

Please help me identify a Japanese knife?

The knife is old - perhaps 30~40 years - 10.5-inch blade - flat on one side and beveled on the other - appears to be carbon steel - blond wood handle and sheaf - light tan horn kakumaki (collar). Characters appear on the beveled side.

Usually, a knife is engraved by the name of the maker, but I am not so sure about this in this case. Like you said, the first two words are 本焼, which is Hon Yanki (True Forge) -- describing the highest steel processing in Japanese knife making. Thanks for translating this, TeRReT.

A typical Honyaki knife is at least $300 if I remember correctly, and can cost more than $1000 dollars.

The last three words are: 友 ?? I cannot be sure of the last two words. They could be what you said, or they could be 友次白. Is this the name of the artist? I have no idea.

Yeah the last character is the most difficult to read. The middle one could be either the one I saw or the one you put, but as far as how to read my fiancée is not sure. Kanji is difficult and there are many ways to read it and its not something she is familiar with. Will keep researching though.

Very well could be a symbol. A lot of Japanese knife makers have symbols which they routinely use for their knives, but it probably it not a true icon because it is a bit too simple. I view it as a decorative symbol, but not a family crest. Or it could be one of those "merged" character between a drawing and a real Japanese kaji character, like this:

Yeah the 友 means friend individually, but combined it could mean something different and can either be pronounced tomo or yuu

Interesting that the last 2 characters have been read 3 different ways from 3 different people. Maybe of you could try another picture of the last 2 characters it might help. I will bug my fiancée tomorrow but she loses patience with my chow hounding :p

Well my fiancée concurs that it could be 友次 but thinks its 友次百 with makes for an odd name because the last character means 100. It would also mean it reads tomotsugimomo or tomotsugihyaku. And I slept through Japanese class :p

Apparently there is a knive brand Tomotsugu which could be the case here and the 100 might reference something else like model number。though I don't think it is the Tomotsugu I have found, the kanji is different, but at least it is an actual family name, so could still be that just a different family.

The knife is a recent gift from the widow of it original user. My passion is cooking and she knew I would appreciate the knife. I have not used it yet, wanting to make sure I know what it is and adopt proper respect for the knife.

Oh I see. Based on the fact that it is a Honyaki knife, it should be a high quality knife. I am 100% sure it is a carbon steel knife. Most likely a white steel Shirogami knife, but there is a small chance that it is a blue steel Aogami knife. It would never be anything lower than White or Blue, just because it is a Honyaki knife.

Because it is a single bevel knife, the sharpening technique is different. It is a whole new topic. For now, just make sure that you don't put this knife into an electric knife sharpener. It will ruin the knife. Finally, this is a knife called Yanagiba, which specializes slicing fish filet for sushi.